Victoria assisted dying deaths and applications surge

The number of people utilizing Victoria, Australia’s voluntary assisted dying (VAD) scheme has seen a significant increase. According to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board’s latest annual report, there were 512 deaths via euthanasia and assisted suicide in the 2025–26 period, representing 1.1 percent of all deaths in the state. This is nearly four times the rate recorded during the scheme’s first year of operation in 2019–20.

Applications for the scheme also rose sharply, with 1,156 Victorians applying in the year ending June, a nearly 40 percent increase from the previous financial year. The data shows that 372 instances were euthanasia, where a medical practitioner administers the substance, while 372 were assisted suicides, where the individual takes the substance themselves.

Demographic trends indicate that the majority of applicants are aged between 60 and 89, with men accounting for 54 percent of applicants. Additionally, regional Victorians are utilizing the scheme at a higher rate than their proportion of the population, with 37 percent of requests originating from outside metropolitan Melbourne.

Authorities expect uptake to continue rising following legislative changes introduced last November. These changes removed a clause that prevented health practitioners from raising the subject with patients unprompted and extended the medical prognosis timeframe to 12 months for all eligible conditions. The minimum waiting period for accessing life-ending medication was also reduced to five days.